Alibaba invests another $1.3 billion into its offline retail strategy

Alibaba has furthered its physical retail footprint after it invested another billion dollars into projects to develop its so-called “new retail” strategy which combines online and offline.

The Chinese firm, the dominant e-commerce player in its country, gobbled up a 15 percent stake in Beijing Easyhome Furnishing for RMB 5.45 billion, or around $867 million, and pumped $486 million into a big data retail firm in two deals announced over the weekend.

Beijing - Easyhome - Home - Furnishing - DIY-style

Beijing Easyhome operates 223 physical home furnishing and DIY-style stores across 29 provinces in China, which it claims makes it the country’s second largest in its field.

The second outlay is for a 38 percent stake in Shiji Retail Information Technology, Reuters reports, which works with hotels and high-street retailers on data-related services to increase customer footfall, grow engagement and more.

Beijing - Easyhome - Deal - Investment - E-commerce

The Beijing Easyhome deal is the fourth major investment that the e-commerce giant has made in a brick and mortar chain. Last year, it bought major holdings in hypermarket firm Sun Art...